The story goes that our eponymous hero was once part of a legendary adventuring duo with his partner, Shield Knight. During their travels, Shovel Knight and Shield Knight visit the mysterious Tower of Fate. After they encounter a cursed amulet within the tower, Shovel Knight loses consciousness, eventually waking up outside the (now sealed) tower - alone. His spirit broken after losing his best friend and ally, Shovel Knight retires from adventuring and resigns himself to a life of solitude. Unbeknownst to Shovel Knight, however, his self-imposed exile has left the land without champions, making it ripe for conquering by the evil Enchantress and the eight dastardly knights of her Order of No Quarter. Discovering one day that the Tower of Fate has been unsealed, Shovel Knight realizes that only he can defeat the villains wreaking havoc on the land. Setting off with his trusty Shovel Blade, Shovel Knight must fight his way through The Order of No Quarter and their minions, reach the lair of the Enchantress, and dispense justice in spades once and for all!

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Publishing/Update History

The game was released on June 26, 2014 for the Wii U, Nintendo 3DS, and all PC OSes on Steam (Windows, Mac, and Linux). However, thanks to the (very) successful kickstarter, several free expansions featuring members of the Order of No Quarter were made for the game. The first of these, Plague of Shadows, was released on September 17th, 2015, starring Plague Knight in a story parallel to Shovel Knight's as he turns traitor on the Order in order to harness their essence in pursuit of an ultimate potion. The second expansion, Specter of Torment, is a prequel that follows Specter Knight as he recruits the Order of No Quarter, released in Spring 2017 (March 3 for the Nintendo Switch and April for other platforms). King of Cards, the third and final expansion is set to feature King Knight, and a four-player Battle Mode is also in development for non-portable formats.

On January 11th, 2017, it was announced that the update featuring Specter of Torment would also rebrand the game's original format with all the expansions included as Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove, and that the game will be ported to the Nintendo Switch. In turn, all four of the game's campaigns and the Battle Mode will be available for standalone purchase for those who don't want to pay for the entire collection. Additionally, the update would include the long-promised Body Swap Mode that reverses everyone's gender, and co-op multiplayer for every version of the original game (now named Shovel of Hope) but the 3DS and Vita. A followup post on February 22 revealed that the Switch would be the first to get the Treasure Trove version and the Specter of Torment standalone campaign as system launch titles, with other platforms getting the update over a month later.

Finally, in August 2018, Yacht Club Games revealed the Battle Mode, Shovel Knight Showdown; and announced that it and King of Cards would release alongside the long-awaited Plague, Specter, and King Knight amiibo figures and physical releases for PS4 and Switch. These were originally slated for April 9, 2019 but have since been delayed a few extra months.

Shovel Knight also received his own amiibo figure, unlocking Challenge stages and customizable knights in the Wii U and 3DS versions, as well as co-op multiplayer on Wii U (until it became standard with the Treasure Trove update). This marks the first instance of an indie character receiving an amiibo. Plague, Specter, and King Knights later received their own figures as well.

Shovel Knight's rise to fame has led him to be a Guest Fighter and make cameo appearances in several other games, making him something of a mascot for retro-style indie gaming:

Shovel Knight contains examples of:

The villagers may cheer you on to defeat the Enchantress, but they'll still charge you a few thousand extra gold for each additional health and magic upgrade.

Chester not only charges you for the relics when you find them, he'll charge you extra if you buy them from him in the village instead.

The Troupple King still grants you ichors as Plague Knight, but he requires a greater sanctification fee. Since Plague Knight uses them for armor upgrades rather than consumable potions like Shovel Knight does, it makes a certain amount of sense from a gameplay perspective.

Justified and zig-zagged in Plague of Shadows. While Chester charges out the nose for arcanas because he is wary of taking possibly fake gold from an alchemist like Plague Knight, he won't charge a dime if they're exchanged for relics since he knows for sure they're legitimate.

Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Near the end, a Type 2 happens. King Knight of all people does this to Shovel Knight after he defeats the entire Order of No Quarter in a Battle Royale and leaves them literally hanging from the stage.

Ambiguously Human: All but two of the Knights (Shield Knight and Polar Knight) have their faces obscured by their helmets, so in a world where Funny Animals coexist with regular humans, all bets are off. Specifically, it's completely unclear whether Mole Knight is just some guy in a mole-like suit of armor or an actual mole, and an NPC that appears rarely on Armor Outpost known only as "????" is identical to Shovel Knight, except he has the head of a catfish. When talked to, he just says it's nice to take the helmet off sometimes. This just makes things even more ambiguous.

Come Specter Of Torment, Specter Knight's face is partially shown, confirming he's a human called Donovan. Or at least he was, as he's undead now.

Another Side, Another Story: Specter Knight, Plague Knight, and King Knight were selected by fan vote and are made playable outside of the game's multiplayer thanks to updates, complete with their own altered versions of the normal story and their own mechanics. Plague Knight's campaign, Plague of Shadows, launched in fall 2015, while Specter Knight's campaign, Specter of Torment, was released in spring 2017.

Antepiece: The game is not shy about these. For almost every special gimmick in a level, you will have a chance to test and learn it before facing it again with hazards. Taken Up to Eleven in the Hall of Champions; the entire level is an enormous Antepiece which teaches you how to deal properly with ghosts before fighting a boss version of them.

If you die just as the finishing blow is landed on the boss, the game gives you the win anyway. If it happens against a Wandering Traveler, you're given a fraction of health to make your quest continue as normal.

If you die in a duel against the Wandering Travelers, the gold will still be there if you challenge the same opponent again (as long as you don't die again elsewhere).

Chester will sell the relics in the first village if you happen to skip or not find them in its stage. Likewise, in Plague of Shadows, he'll appear in the Armor Outpost to trade relics for arcana if you don't find his chests in the various stages.

The final boss has two: If you die in the second phase, you'll restart right there instead of the first phase, and if Shield Knight falls in one of the pits created by the boss, she'll hop back in a moment.

Part of the Battletoads boss fight involves a section based upon the infamously difficult "Turbo Tunnel" segments from the Battletoads games. Unlike said game, however, there's no consequences for dying  Shovel Knight doesn't get robbed of some of his Gold when he dies during that level. (Crashing is still a One-Hit KO, however.)

During the Boss Rush, Polar Knight is always one of the first three rematches, to avoid the frustration of dying late into the fights on his instant-death spikes. Propeller Knight's summoned airship also won't blast holes in the floor of the arena.

A patch was released for (only) the PC version that made the game speedrunner-friendly by removing certain elements of RNG like where Specter Knight spawns and when bullets that split will do so.

Plague Knight's campaign allows you to check your level completion before beating the game, which helps with the 420 Cipher Coins you can collect.

In Specter of Torment, to make landing aerial strikes easier, a fire-like line, accompanied by a noise, appears on whatever is a viable target, with the upward or downward diagonal direction you're going shown.

In Specter of Torment, you won't lose gold if you die during Tinker Knight's second phase. There are two likely reasons for this: first, the second phase now takes place on a horizontal autoscrolling arena, so there's no practical way to record the location of (or recover) your loot, and unlike in Shovel of Hope, Tinker Knight is much more dangerous in his first phase  he has the Mobile Gear instead of you. It also starts from the second phase if you die, so you don't have to fight his first phase again.

In the anglerfish miniboss section of Treasure Knight's stage, it is possible for Plague Knight and Spectre Knight to fall off a platform, and then become trapped in a cycle of Collision Damage with the angler while floundering in the air to recover. If that happens and you manage to stay alive for long enough, the Advancing Boss of Doom will slow down and even stop advancing altogether so you can get free, and then resume the fight once you're back on solid ground.

Anti-Villain: The Black Knight only attacked Shovel Knight and Plague Knight to protect Shield Knight. He only fought Specter Knight after being attacked the first time, and to defend The Enchantress the second.

April Fools' Day: Fans across the world were constantly asking for Shovel Knight to be made in the Nintendo 64-style 3D format. So Yacht Club games happily obliged by creating... a Commodore 64-style Shovel Knight for April 2018.

Plague Knight and Specter Knight both have promo art that looks much more consistent with their playable appearances (Plague Knight looks shorter and his "beak" is smaller, whilst Specter Knight's armor now has gauntlets). Specter Knight also gets a completely new dialogue portrait for Specter of Torment, which replaces the original.

Percy and Mona, Non Player Characters without plot importance in the main campaign, get a number of new sprites and animations in Plague of Shadows, with Percy even getting a complete aesthetic overhaul to make him look much more detailed.

The promotional art for almost every character (save for The Enchantress, who uses the exact same stock art) gradually shifted to brighter colors with more shading and discernible details, along with more dynamic poses, as the game started to approach King of Cards.

Battle in the Rain: The final battle against Black Knight is one of these in Shovel of Hope and Plague of Shadows. Averted, however, in Specter of Torment, where it takes place indoors in the room right after the place the other playable characters fight Black Knight.

The Flare Wand found in Pridemoor Keep, which is likely to be the first relic that a player will get. It simply launches a rather slow-moving fireball which will travel straight until it hits an enemy or obstacle... which is one of the most useful tools to kill enemies positioned on ledges just ready to knock you into a pit. It is also highly useful to damage bosses from a safe distance in most cases.

Plague of Shadows has a few of its own safe utility options:

The Float Burst for Plague Knight makes him descend slower after doing a burst jump. While it doesn't provide much combat benefit, it makes bomb jumping considerably safer, easier to control, and helps a lot whenever you have to traverse long segments full of ground hazards.

The Vat Arcana's only use is to summon a vat directly under Plague Knight to use as a platform, which then slowly starts sinking and falls off the screen. However, since using it instantly resets your jumps and gives you a chance to charge up another bomb burst, this can save your skin if you mess up a jump or get knocked back by an enemy into a pit.

Specter of Torment has a variety of Curios of this type:

The hover plume. It simply lets you float upwards a bit; however, it can save you from pits and make some trickier jumps easier.

The Judgement Rush automatically targets the nearest enemy and dash towards them before slicing them for a full health point as opposed to a half point like most attacks do. It's useful for saving yourself from botched jumps, closing in on an agile boss to deal more damage with grounded slices, and can be used to skip a good number of obstacles.

The Dread Talon is among the very first Curios you can get, but remains consistently useful due to having a high damage output that kills enemies very quickly, a low Darkness cost, and the upgrade increasing attack range while stopping the attack from being interrupted.

Boss Arena Urgency: Downplayed, as both bosses will "fix" it given time, but it will kill a careless player.

Polar Knight, who digs up one hit kill spikes, but he will make snow fall from the top of the arena to cover them.

The Enchantress, who will destroy parts of the arena with her magic, but will also fix it occasionally. Longer fights increase the urgency, as the amount of blocks she destroys before repairing the arena will increase.

The boss themes for the Order of No Quarter and the Black Knight incorporate the bosses' respective level themes.

Black Knight's second theme takes this further, as a remix of both the first level theme and the game's main theme.

Both of the Enchantress's themes are remixes of the game's main theme and Shield Knight's theme.

In Plague of Shadows, Shovel Knight, taking Plague Knight's place as boss of the Explodatorium, has a remix of that character's theme with the tempo and instrumentation of Plague Knight's boss theme. Also, the final boss of Plague Knight's story has a remix of his normal boss theme.

In Specter of Torment, Shield Knight's boss music, appropriately, is a remixed version of "Requiem of Shield Knight".

In the second part of the Tower of Fate, Shovel Knight crashes the Order's dinner, forcing him to fight all of them one by one. Luckily, every time you beat one of them, you get a full-health chicken. Except on Hard Mode, of course...

Averted in Specter of Torment. The second phase of the Tower of Fate is skipped, as most of the bosses have wildly different arenas now note Propeller Knight is fought on a fleet of small planes, Polar Knight's arena is wider than a full screen, and Tinker Knight's mecha is an autoscrolling fight, to name a few.

Bottomless Pits: A platforming staple. Watch your step! Made all the more perilous because some of the platforms that would protect you from the bottomless pits are destructible, either by your pogo strikes or by certain enemy attacks. It is entirely possible to chip away the last bit of a platform you were standing on and fall to your own self-inflicted death.

Cheat Code: Done by way of putting in a specific code when naming a profile. The most famous is "Butt Mode", which replaces key words in the script with the word "butt." Players have since discovered literally hundreds of codes.

The Japanese version is no slouch in the cheater department, as their equivalent to Butt Mode replaces Shovel Knight's name to either Shovel Samurai or Squid Knight depending on the code, carrots with radishes, and gold pieces with koban-style coins  on top of the latter two changes being kept along with the rest of the Japanese regional changes if you play in other languages.

Checkpoint Starvation: Can be done by the player at their own risk, in a Self-Imposed Challenge, by literally destroying the checkpoints. It also gives extra gold. Naturally harder stages, especially the last ones, will net more gold, as do checkpoints placed before lengthy or particularly difficult segments.

Enforced in New Game+, which removes most waypoints, leaving one at the level's midway point and one prior to the boss.

Chest Monster: An angler fish miniboss using Chester's chest as bait appears within Treasure Knight's stage. Played with in that the chest is indeed real. You just have to defeat the miniboss first in order to free Chester so that you can buy the Throwing Anchor from him.

Specter Knight's campaign features dog-like mimics called Memmecs hidden in some areas. They have a slightly different-looking lock than regular chests, though, so an observant player can notice them. There's also one in the Tower of Fate.

Collapsing Lair: The Tower of Fate starts collapsing once the Enchantress' true form has been defeated. Though Plague Knight's story shows that this was his doing, and not because the Tower suffered from No Ontological Inertia.

Plague Knight can inflict this on enemies using the Berserker's Brew. He still takes damage, though.

Continuing Is Painful: Dying while carrying a lot of gold can result in this  especially if you chose to break all the checkpoints and the gold went at an unfortunate spot. Might as well pause, pick "Return to the map", and retry the entire stage without getting a point in the death score.

Convection Schmonvection: Lava won't do anything to Shovel Knight as long as he doesn't get unnecessarily close to it; you can even turn it into a bouncing jelly!

Cool Airship: Propeller Knight's level. There is also one located above the Armor Outpost.

Shovel Knight's Ornate Armor. It's made of gold! Wearing it throws sparkles with every move, turns your jumps into flips, and even allows you to nail the landing when using transportation catapults. But as far as actual gameplay effects go, it's identical to the starting armor.

Same thing goes for the Dandy Duds in Plague Knight's campaign. When wearing them, he strikes poses when jumping, his burst jump explodes in a mess of sparkles and gold, he gets a different walk, and his victory celebration is different. But, just like the Ornate Armor, they're identical to the starting robes.

Specter Knight gets the Ghostly Garb instead of a gold outfit, but the effect is the same, just replace being shiny with being scary/cool: he skates along the ground instead of running, he has Speed Echoes when moving, and his Dashing Slash makes him disappear briefly.

Cool Helmet: Nearly everyone: Shovel Knight himself, the knights of the Order of No Quarter (bar Plague Knight, who wears more of a mask than a helmet), the Black Knight, the Bard, Mr. Hat (who wears hats on top of his helmet), and Phantom Striker.

The game's single most amazing headgear may be Shield Knight's. She leaves it behind with Shovel Knight, only for it to instantly find its way back to her. Her equipment delivers serious protection.

Damn You, Muscle Memory!: In the 3DS and Wii U versions, B confirms and A cancels, which goes against the Nintendo tradition of confirming with A and canceling with B. It does, however, conform to the NES tradition of confirming with the "jump" button and cancelling with the "attack" button.

"The Forlorn Sanctum", the music for the final stage of the main game, shares most of the key notes as "Requiem of Shield Knight".

Zigzagged in Plague of Shadows. Plague Knight's theme and the various remixes are slightly more upbeat, but still sinister in this game mode. The Corrupted Essence's theme, however, is much more dark and foreboding.

In Specter of Torment, the fights against Reize use a darker version of "Fighting With All of our Might".

Death Throws: A very rare example where this is exploited: during the boss rush, every time Shovel Knight downs a member of the Order of No Quarter, they are simply flung out of the stage, but once all of them are defeated, they are left holding each other from a Bottomless Pit in a Chain of People.

Shovel Knight can jump and plant his shovel on enemies' heads. Additionally, he can hit enemies below him by using a fishing rod or a Throwing Anchor.

The Black Knight can also jump and shovel plant. And in his final battle, he can rain down meteors on the arena.

Plague Knight will occasionally jump very high and frenetically throw down bombs.

Propeller Knight will call for a backup airship that will keep firing cannonballs to destroy parts of his boss arena while limiting Shovel Knight's movement.

Polar Knight will jump and then shovel plant as well. It will reveal one hit kill spikes.

Treasure Knight will leap into the air and fire his harpoon arm down at you.

King Knight will blow a horn and confetti will rain down on the sides of the screen. However, it does little damage and is easily avoided.

Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: If a bit pricey; every time you die, you get about 25% of your current gold scattered around the place you last died. But if you broke all the checkpoints, then you'll get thrown back to the beginning of the stage.

Depth Perplexion: Used intentionally with Blackout Basement during the first level of Tower Of Fate: the blocks that you can't jump on initially look identical to the ones you can jump on due to the darkness, but you can still tell them apart due to the rain that only hits solid blocks.

If you die by falling into the lake of the Troupple King, you won't lose any gold, but you will get chastised by the King for polluting his nice, clean water with your corpse, especially if it's Plague Knight's.

Similarly, jumping off the Tower of Fate hub area as Specter Knight will return you to the balcony and have the Dark Acolyte tell you to be careful. When the Acolyte is replaced with Reize, he will appear instead and chastise you for "trying to leave work early".

Talking to King Knight after the Boss Rush while wearing the Ornate Armor will result in an amusing reaction from him.

If you manage to slip by the overworld battle against the Black Knight and then defeat him in the first Tower of Fate stage, his icon will disappear from the map.

In Plague of Shadows, after the Troupple King teaches Plague Knight how to dance, he can dance anywhere... Except close to Mona. If you attempt to do so, Plague Knight will just stand there, too embarrassed to do it, complete with Shy Finger-Twiddling. He will also do this during the final boss fight if you were to try and get him to dance while at least one Mona clone is visible. Notably, at the very end of the game, he finally does dance with Mona.

If you fight Shovel Knight last on the second part of the map in Plague of Shadows, the campfire cutscene plays as normal, except a chest containing a Meal Ticket will be there, and Requiem of Shield Knight will be playing. The currently equipped Bomb Jump also carries over into cutscenes.

Mona can create the Pandemonium Chalice, the reward for collecting all the Cipher Coins, and has dialogue for doing so. However, this is only possible on a New Game+, since she leaves after completing one stage in the third section of the Valley, thus requiring one to collect the Cipher Coins in the levels Mona will not be around for beforehand.

An aversion, however, is the intro to Body Swap. It uses the same cutscene, just with the appropriate pronouns based on the settings. Of course, it's possible that it is this way because having to redraw the entire cutscene could have been adding too much to the developers' workload.

Same thing goes for the pictures on the bottom screen of the 3DS version whenever on the map itself or when Shovel Knight gets sent back in a level after being killed or falling through a pit, which are the exact same in Body Swap mode.

The flashback sequences of Specter of Torment play slightly differently than the main game. Because Donovan isn't undead yet, he doesn't use darkness to use his relics. Instead, he uses a magic meter just like Shovel Knight, complete with magic drops from enemies. If Donovan dies, his money bags resemble Shovel Knight's (with angel wings instead of demon wings) and the name on the death screen says "Donovan" instead of the file's name.

In the flashback sequences, if you skip the Caltrops artifact, Luan will give them to Donovan in the second flashback. This is because getting all the red skulls causes Red to give the player the Donovan Set and Caltrops.

The Chaos Orb can cause a lot of damage against bosses as long it's properly used. Given most bosses move a lot, this isn't always easy.

The Charge Handle deals two points of damage, but when charging, movement speed is reduced to a crawl. Using it requires more planning and precision than the Dynamo Mail's charge attack.

The Conjurer's Coat gives 50% more magic capacity and makes enemies drop magic jars more often, but Shovel Knight will take extra damage while wearing it.

During the Boss Rush in New Game+, every other between-boss heal is replaced by a bomb. Make it explode against a boss, and it will eat four life points from them.

The Armor of Chaos, which can be forged after defeating Kratos in the Playstation versions, increases the power and reach of the shovel and lets you charge up a ranged fireball attack by defeating enemies. It also removes the ability to change directions in mid-air when using the pogo attack until you've hit something, and causes you to hang in mid-air while attacking (just as Kratos does in his own series). The end result is that you have to learn a completely different set of mid-air controls when using it.

Plague Knight's bomb jump can be incredibly difficult to handle (unless you use Float Burst), but mastering it allows the player to almost literally fly through the map at incredible speeds and even skip some segments, which would be impossible to do as Shovel Knight.

The Goo Garment, one of the cloaks you can grab in Plague of Shadows, allows you to bounce off walls and do a rolling attack in the air that's otherwise only usable when using the Spin Burst. The issue is, as the description explains, that it's fairly hard to control, and using it incorrectly can land you in a variety of death traps. Knowing when to use it and cancel out of it not only gives you great aggressive power and mobility, but can also allow you to escape the same variety of death traps as a makeshift Wall Jump.

Difficulty Spike: The game tells you the gloves are off on the second tier of bosses by ramping up the Bottomless Pits and instant death opportunities. The first stage of the Tower of Fate kicks the difficulty up even more by mixing all elements from previous stages in very cruel ways.

The Dragon: Specter of Torment makes Specter Knight out to be this, as he is the first knight the Enchantress binds to her cause, and is tasked with finding more.

It's not uncommon for players to doom themselves because they got a little distracted and dug right into a Bottomless Pit, lava, or spikes.

In Plague of Shadows, Percy attempts to send Plague Knight via catapult into an unguarded trove full of treasures and armaments. Upon fixing the contraption. Plague Knight is launched right into Armor Outpost, which is full of guards who are eager to arrest him. Keep in mind that said catapult was right outside said outpost.

Polar Knight. He's the only one of the Order who uses a (snow) shovel, and is one of the few bosses that Shovel Knight knew personally. For all we know, he may have picked up his shovel because of Polar Knight.

The Black Knight is a more direct example, having a similar appearance to our protagonist, same weapon, and identical attacks. Subverted when his true motivations for opposing Shovel Knight come to pass  to protect Shield Knight.

Polar Knight seems to have been on good footing with Shovel Knight before the Enchantress created the Order.

The Enchantress is actually Shield Knight being possessed.

Evil Laugh: The Black Knight and Propeller Knight give one before they battle.

Evil Genius: Tinker Knight, Plague Knight, and The Enchantress. They are an engineer, alchemist, and sorcerer, respectively. Subverted in the case of Plague Knight, who only joined the Order of No Quarter as part of his gambit to woo Mona to his side.

Evil Tower of Ominousness: The Tower of Fate. It has greenish clouds within the background and greenish rain during some of the segments. To add to the vibes, the map music gets replaced with a Dark Reprise once you've reached the stages that take place within the tower.

Evolving Title Screen: The subtitle displayed on the title screen changes depending on which character was played last.

The Order of No Quarter share quite a lot in common with the Robot Masters. Not any one set, mind, but the concept. They're a group of highly memorable bosses who wait at the end of specifically themed levels, have great visual designs and a lot of personality for one-off bosses, fight with very specific gimmicks, and are fought a second time in a Boss Rush toward the end of the game. They even have a very similar naming scheme. The one thing they don't do is give a weapon or a skill upon defeat. That's what finding Chester is all about.

Shovel Knight and Shield Knight are expies of Mega Man and Proto Man (although the latter only in terms of appearance).

Black Knight is also an expy of Proto Man in that he's not only fiercely independent, he also serves as a somewhat similar foil to Shovel Knight. He's also an expy to Bass in that he's a black-armored rival to Shovel Knight, using the same form of attack as him and not being aligned to the main antagonist.

Polar Knight can dig up spikes in his arena. It's almost impossible to avoid them and his attacks without abusing of the Phase Locket or using an Ichor of Boldness.

The Enchantress' first phase. You fight her on an arena consisting entirely of breakable blocks, which she will start to destroy eventually and can even be broken accidentally by the player. You can be doing a perfect job of avoiding her attacks, but get hit a little too close to a gap and you'll have to restart the entire thing.

Black Knight is never depicted alongside the members of the Order of No Quarter. This is a quick hint about his alignment. A more meta instance for this foreshadowing is that the achievement for defeating a member of the Order without taking damage cannot be gained when fighting Black Knight.

A subtle one is given from the opening sequence and onwards: Shield Knight and the Enchantress have the same beauty mark.

Similar to the above example, the cover art for the game depicts the Enchantress at the top-middle of the piece, just under the logo. The version that appears on the Official Soundtrack is identical, except the Enchantress is replaced by Shield Knight.

In Plague Knight's story, if the music sheet Plague Knight gives to Percy doesn't unlock a new piece of music to listen to, he may give Plague Knight some "romantic advice". In addition, Reize fights Plague Knight as a dare because he wants him to brew a love potion to win a girl. Lastly, the dance the Troupple King does for Plague Knight is different and involves some of his Troupple Fish forming into heart-shaped formations at certain points within the song or kissing. All these foreshadow Plague Knight's true motivations for brewing the ultimate potion.

Right before the first fight with Black Knight, the latter accuses Plague Knight of brewing the potion to win the Magicist's heart. Turns out, he was half-correct: the base reason is true, but he got the wrong individual. It's also hinted about by Plague Knight's reaction, which has him confused about where the idea he's trying to woo the Magicist came from, yet doesn't say anything to deny having feelings for anyone either.

If you complete the Flying Machine after Mona is replaced by Percy, he says that the Flying Machine is very romantic and would be good for "wooing a fair mare". In the epilogue of the game, Plaguey takes Mona for a date there.

Plague Knight's (named) assistants in Plague of Shadows; Mona (melancholic), Baz (choleric (though it's up to you whether he plays the "assistant" part or not)), Magicist (phlegmatic), Percy (sanguine), and Oolong (eclectic).

Funny Background Event: In the final Boss Rush against the Order of No Quarter, each one will come to fight Shovel Knight individually while the others merely watch and wait... while eating or drinking. Special mention goes to Treasure Knight, who will raise his diving helmet to eat something, although it still won't show his face. Plague Knight will pull out a straw dramatically to drink while he waits for his turn. In Plague of Shadows, Shovel Knight himself will barge in, and after a clunky landing, he'll pass out for a moment, but will regain consciousness and look around... Before taking another nap.

In Plague of Shadows, if you wait long enough in Village and Armor Outpost before conquering it, you'll be able to see Shovel Knight walking around.

Furry Reminder: There are a number of anthropomorphic animals in the game, who act like any other NPC, although sometimes they demonstrate animal-like behavior. For example, the Airship Enthusiast in Armor Outpost will occasionally crow as Roosters do if left to idle, and Percy, a horse, kicks on his hind legs to operate a switch, and randomly runs on all fours when changing positions in Plague Knight's lab.

Game-Breaking Bug: A bug in the 3DS version, introduced with the Treasure Trove update, caused the game to crash whenever the amiibo-exclusive Bomb Burst ability was used by Shovel Knight. This also meant that one of the challenges, which requires the use of said ability, couldn't be completed. The bug was later patched.

Gender Flip: An option for Shovel Knight's campaign, as of the Treasure Trove/Specter of Torment update, now allows the player to switch the genders of every major character. The Enchantress becomes the Enchanter, the Order of No Quarter becomes all female or you can pick a select few characters to be switched. The game's dialogue is even changed slightly to reflect it. They can mix and match gender appearances and even which gender characters are referred to in the text.

Glass Cannon: Mentioned by name, this is what Propeller Knight would have been if he was playable.

Fell into a Bottomless Pit and your money is in an impossible-to-reach place? You can try to fish it back. An NPC tells you this, but you might miss him.

There are a few music sheets that are almost impossible to find unless you think of exploring every corner of every stage. Even those that are likely to kill you in the process.

You can ease the difficulty of New Game+ by a whole lot. The New Game+ turns almost every piece of food in silver plates, and even from mini-bosses, into bombs. If you want recovery items (aside from Ichor of Renewal and the random apple or carrot in a pile), you'll have to fish, and since you had plenty of food during normal gameplay, chances are you'll have totally forget about the Fishing Rod other than to catch gold fish, which don't heal you.

Harder Than Hard: Though accessible only through cheats, one can start a game where enemies do four times their normal damage.

Hat of Flight: Propeller Knight's method of travel. Can also be re-purposed as a fan to blow Shovel Knight off the stage.

HeelFace Turn: In the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue, some of the Order of No Quarter go on to use their abilities for good. Special mention goes to Tinker Knight, who turned his stage into a workshop and now spends his days making toys for children.

Plague Knight's campaign shows he was never truly an antagonist. All he was doing was in order to make the ultimate potion... which, at the end of the game, is what destroys the Tower Of Fate!

The city guards are this within Plague Knight's story. The only reason why they still attack him (or prevent him from entering the village) is because they still believe he's still part of the Order of No Quarter.

Shovel Knight himself is also this, attacking Plague Knight for the same reason he's attacking the other Order of No Quarter members. In fact, Plague Knight only got Shovel Knight's essence because Shovel Knight happened to be raiding his Explodatorium to defeat him.

Hero of Another Story: Several of the Bonus Bosses either state they've defeated many foes before they battled Shovel Knight (i.e., the Phantom Striker and Mr. Hat) or that they, themselves, are currently on a quest (i.e., Reize Seatlan and Kratos). In addition, Shovel Knight himself becomes this within Plague Knight's story due to him still going on his quest.

Hyperactive Metabolism: The player recovers his health via carrots, apples, chicken, and fish. He also extends his health via carefully prepared dishes.

Impractically Fancy Outfit: The most expensive armor in each game makes the playable knights look shiny and fancy (except Specter Knight, who becomes spookier) and changes a few animation details, but they don't have any practical benefits.

Improbably Female Cast: Can be invoked at the player's liking thanks to body swap mode, where it's possible to turn the entire main cast into female characters.

Interface Screw: Specter Knight's stage can flash on and off at some points, and Joke Bombs will cause the background to explode in rainbows.

Invincible Minor Minion: The ghost enemies in Specter Knight's stage. Hitting them only makes them turn into a mist that cannot harm you nor be harmed, and shortly thereafter they reform and continue chasing you. You get to have your revenge against them in the Hall of Champions, which contains orbs that can kill them (and their King Mook) for good.

Joke Item: All of the playable characters get a set of joke gear that's expensive; Shovel Knight and Plague Knight get golden armor that doesn't add anything to their established set of abilities aside from give them fancier animations and sparkle, while Specter Knight gets a cloak that... makes him look scarier.

Kung Fu-Proof Mook: The knight type of enemy. They will block a frontal assault or even a jumping one. The only ways to hurt them are charged attacks, the Throwing Anchor, the Dust Knuckles, and carefully timing and positioning your attacks to hit them where their shield currently isn't.

The dragons in Polar Knight's stage cannot be killed by the pogo shovel attack. This is less to make them more challenging and more so that they can serve as living platforms for Shovel Knight.

Averted. The Enchantress being a possessed Shield Knight is a plot twist in the main game, but Plague of Shadows doesn't bring it up, and Specter of Torment not only keeps it as a plot twist, it gives added impetus for Specter Knight to betray the Enchantress.

Played straight with Black Knight not being a member of the Order, though; Plague of Shadows and Specter of Torment make it clear that he refused to join, even after being defeated by Specter Knight.

Ledge Bats: Not exactly bats, but any enemy close to an edge will be eager to catch a reckless player and push him into an early demise. Played to a highly evil degree in the Clockwork Tower, where enemies with the exact same movement pattern of Medusa Heads will more often than not make Shovel Knight plummet to his doom in a Bottomless Pit.

The order of the Knights fought at the Boss Rush is random, aside from Polar Knight, who is guaranteed to be one of the first three. You can face the bosses you have the most trouble with in succession, or worse, after you've burned through most of your mana and health. This is especially aggravating in New Game+, where you only get a refill after every other encounter.

Speedrunning the game while there are many opponents wandering around the map, especially when the Tower of Fate is unlocked; you may end up having either the Phantom Striker or Black Knight in the only path to the stage, and even entering and quitting a stage may not help, as they can walk even further. A later patch fixed this by making it so that if you've spent less than an hour playing the game in total, no map encounters beyond the first one will spawn until you beat it.

Mad Scientist: Plague Knight loves explosions, and as an alchemist, has extensive intimate knowledge of chemistry and magic. He cackles gleefully while thinking up new methods of destruction. Mona's in the same boat, but less prone to fits of laughter.

Mona: "You know what they say, the bigger the explosion..."

Plague Knight: "Hee hee hee... the better the alchemist!"

Made of Explodium: A good amount of things explode in the Explodatorium, including rats, bombs, and certain platforms. But given the name of the stage, you should have expected that coming in.

Mini-Boss: One or two in each of the main levels. Straight up done when Shovel Knight defeats Kratos; the Ghost of Sparta gives Shovel Knight a suit of armor that replicates several of the God of War's moves.

Black Knight, who you fight a number of times, fights a lot like Shovel Knight himself.

In Plague Of Shadows, Shovel Knight fights even more like the player would for obvious reasons, even using the relics he'd normally acquire within his journey. The penultimate boss against the Plague of Shadows also counts, being identical to the boss fight against Plague Knight if you were playing as Shovel Knight.

New Game+: Allows upgrades to be carried over, but also increases overall difficulty of the game: most things do double damage, almost every health pickup is now a bomb instead, and there's only two checkpoints in each level, one usually somewhere near the middle and one before the boss.

The game isn't insanely difficult, but certain stages require a lot of precision with jumps.

New Game+ turns every piece of food but those randomly found in piles of stuff into bombs and makes enemies and bosses do double damage. It also gives only two checkpoints throughout most stages: one in the middle and another right before the boss. Additionally, you will only get energy refills once per two battles in the Boss Rush. Also, during the battle against The Enchantress, the spell she uses to "fix" the arena is much less effective.

Plague of Shadows also takes the difficulty a notch upwards, as Plague Knight's jumping controls are quite a bit harder to master than Shovel Knight's.

New Game+ for Specter of Torment has an additional change alongside the ones in Shovel of Hope. Your Darkness and Will gauges have been merged and now drains slowly over time. Being slow or abusing curios will result in your demise.

The Bonus Boss Reize Seatlan looks a lot more Animesque than any other character in the entire game. Justified in that this is actually a cameo appearance of a pre-existing character made by a DeviantArt user back in 2001.

Shield Knight and Polar Knight both have an exposed face. Polar Knight takes it further, having a Viking thematic, which means his body is much more visible than any of the other Knights.

The Battletoads use their standard cartoony design in the crossover in the X-Box version of the game, in contrast to the standard anthro frog NPCs in-game whose heads look like those of a realistic frog's. This is Justified by them being aliens from another world.

The Hall of Champions is filled with pixelated portraits based off of the Real Life people who backed the game's Kickstarter. One of the portraits is of Egoraptor, who is depicted with his chibi head from Game Grumps instead of the somewhat realistic portraits all of the other backers got. Another of the portraits has the head of a dragon. Said dragon shows up in Specter of Torment, as an NPC that Specter Knight can frequently recolor the armor of until the helmet comes off to reveal him as a dragon.

Not-So-Harmless Villain: Tinker Knight is a funny little guy who can't fight to save his own life, right? Not so much when he gets into his MASSIVE mecha, though.

Nothing Is Scarier: The final segment of the game has no enemies, just blocks rising when you draw close enough, but there are several Bottomless Pits scattered throughout it. All while an eerie music plays, raising the tension.

Obvious Rule Patch: There's a somewhat difficult feat called "Untouched" that requires you to beat a member of the Order of No Quarter without taking any damage from them. Since the bosses tend to be pretty difficult and hard to read at times, many players would just fight the predictable and slow King Knight to get it. Plague Knight's version of the feat in the Plague of Shadows campaign specifically states that fighting King Knight doesn't count for it. He counts again in Specter of Torment, likely due to how the game dramatically changed his fighting style to be a bit more unpredictable.

After being released from Shield Knight, The Enchantress turns into the Remnant of Fate, a ginormous sorceress capable of great power.

After the final boss of Plague Knight's campaign, the Plague of Shadows, gets defeated, it transforms into the Corrupted Essence, a ginormous Eldritch Abomination that resembles a twisted version of Plague Knight in terms of appearance.

Reitz Seitzlan does it as the Final Boss in Specter of Torment as well.

Path of Most Resistance: Though often hidden or obscured, paths with traps and enemies will almost always have something worth your trouble.

Power Copying: A downplayed example, but most of the relics you can find and buy within a given stage emulate part of the stage boss's attack pattern or an attack from of one of the distinct enemies introduced in that stage. Even the Bonus Boss fights against the Battletoads and Kratosnote after giving the shovel Kratos gives you after beating him to the Armorer will result in Shovel Knight gaining relics that allows Shovel Knight to mimic their attacks using his shovel.

Promoted to Playable: Since the Kickstarter campaign met its stretch goals, Plague Knight, Specter Knight, and King Knight were selected to receive their own campaigns via updates.

Purely Aesthetic Era: The era the game takes place in appears medieval, but the Iron Whale is a submarine under the ownership of Treasure Knight (who himself is wearing a diving suit), and Propeller Knight commandeers a Flying Machine. There's also Tinker Knight's Humongous Mecha.

Purely Aesthetic Gender: The Body Swap mode enforces this by necessity, but this affects more than just the main character  Shield Knight, Black Knight, and all the boss characters can have their genders swapped with no actual difference in terms of gameplay or text aside from which genders the player chooses to have them be referred as. The devs made it up for it by making the female designs distinct but still true to the characters.

Red Oni, Blue Oni: In full effect with the rivalry between Shovel Knight and the Black Knight. Their final duel is essentially an 8-bit version of Dante vs. Vergil from Devil May Cry.

Retcon: Specter Knight's portrait was updated for the Specter of Torment campaign, and any instances of Specter Knight speaking in the other campaigns now use that portrait instead.

Retraux: An 8-bit style done out of love, not convenience. The tribute to 8-bit games is deliberately idealized, though, so the occasional cheat is done to improve the presentation. This blog post by developer David D'Angelo details exactly how the game does and doesn't abide by the limitations of the NES.

Riding the Bomb: Must be done in Treasure Knight's stage. Also used to get on top of Tinker Knight's mecha.

Rise to the Challenge: In the final part of Clockwork Tower. Comes back with a vengeance in the second stage of the Tower of Fate.

RPG Elements: The gems found throughout the levels are a currency for upgrades.

Schizo Tech: Propeller Knight and Treasure Knight both own an airship and an underwater vessel, respectively, despite the game supposedly being set in medieval times. Tinker Knight is particularly notable, as his specialty is building complex machinery. Possibly Plague Knight as well, since his stage is in an "alchemical lab", not to mention the Dynamo Decanter in the Potionarium, his other headquarters.

Self-Imposed Challenge: Several have achievements attached to them, ranging from the classic "No Damage", to completing the game without any relic, breaking all checkpoints and not ever dying even once, nor falling into a Bottomless Pit.

Secret A.I. Moves: Only the boss fight against Plague Knight and the Plague of Shadows can summon multiple vats at once (as well as make them not disappear), teleport around the arena, and throw three potion bombs at once. Specter Knight's curios give him abilities that resemble his boss moves (swooping in to slash at an enemy, hovering in midair, throwing a boomerang sickle, summoning skeletons), but he can't teleport at will under player control.

Properly extinguishing your campfire after a level will net you the "Only You" Feat/Achievement, a reference to the American PSA character, Smokey the Bear, and his catchphrase, "Only You can prevent wildfires."

A specific Cheat Code in Specter of Torment gives Specter Knight Mega Man XWall Jump abilities, complete with a blue palette that matches X's colors. An alternative code gives him the special wall jump, but lets him keep his normal, red palette as a reference to Zero. The codes themselves are references to Mega Man: Maverick Hunter X and Mega Man ZX respectively.note To elaborate, the code for the blue palette is C&MVRKHNT, a reference to the Maverick Hunters that X is a part of. The code to keep Specter Knight's normal palette is S&CBHR, which is an acronym for Omega Zero's battle music in Mega Man ZX, Cannonball Hard Revenge.

Take That!: In a list done on a particular day, which talks about their influences in the guise of calling out knockoffs, they say that the Big Daddy's resemblance to Treasure Knight is "as obvious and flimsy as the arguments in an Ayn Rand novel".

The PS4 version has a sidequest involving Kratos, which nets the player a unique armor set.

The Xbox One and PC versions include the Battletoads, which get the player a different unique armor set.

The Nintendo versions have content exclusive to amiibo, like alternate costumes, Fairy Companions based on the playable four, a Custom Knight mode for Shovel of Hope, and (prior to the shutdown of Miiverse) the Digger's Diary.

With propellers that carry them around. They serve as Mooks in Pridemoor Keep, The Flying Machine, and the Tower of Fate.

There are green, exploding rats in the Explodatorium and mechanical ones in the Clockwork Tower.

Your Size May Vary: While Plague Knight's as tall as King Knight when you face him as a boss, he becomes as tall as Shovel Knight when you play as him. The discrepancy is more obvious in the battle against the Plague of Shadows, who acts the same as Plague Knight does in his boss fight; despite being a clone of Plague Knight himself, the Plague of Shadows is clearly taller.

Shovel of Hope Examples

An Aesop: The game rewards you with treasure and an achievement for properly putting out Shovel Knight's campfires before leaving them.

Awesome, yet Impractical: Titan Mode, which turns Shovel Knight into a giant. Hitbox Dissonance is in full effect here, as otherwise you can't complete the game with Shovel Knight that big, but even then, it's still very difficult to do so. Downplayed with Giant Mode, where Shovel Knight, while still a giant, isn't as big as he would be in Titan Mode. That, and his hitbox matches his size.

Big Damn Heroes: Black Knight, who arrives right in time to save Shovel Knight while Shield Knight holds The Enchantress' final attack back.

Book-Ends: You start the game with five new music sheets going through a stage with unbreakable checkpoints. Assuming you find the secret area in the last stage, you end the game with five new music sheets going through a stage with unbreakable checkpoints.

Charged Attack: One of the upgrades for the shovel: charged swings do double damage and have twice as much reach, but they halve your horizontal movement speed when you're charging one, unless you're using a specific armor.

Controllable Helplessness: A non-malicious example: you can move the control pad around, making Shovel Knight shake while he's asleep. He'll only wake up when you jump, though.

Defeat Means Friendship: Shovel Knight and the Order of No Quarter end the story on friendly terms. This is especially true if Shovel Knight chooses to rescue them after the final Boss Rush.

Disney Death: Shield Knight is forced to stay behind in the Tower of Fate as it crumbles, holding off a final attack from the Enchantress. She reappears in The Stinger, with a heavy limp and having lost her shield.

Doppelgänger Attack: The Giant Ghost in Hall of Champions will occasionally use this trick to throw off the player.

Emergency Energy Tank: The Ichor of Renewal replenishes all your health and magic. You can only carry up to two at the time, assuming you're not using the two chalices for the other two types of Ichor.

Extreme Omni-Goat: The Goatician, who is occasionally seen eating a piece of paper. He also discusses this trope.

God Mode: One of the cheat codes grants this. Shovel Knight is completely invincible, even to spikes and Bottomless Pits, and he also gains a massive speed boost in his movement, can jump extremely high, and starts with all relics with each having infinite uses. Oh, and treasure is automatically drawn towards him. Another cheat code has the same effects except enlarging Shovel Knight's sprite, having his armour change colour every time he jumps, all Order of No Quarter stages already cleared, and all wandering travelers already defeated.

The first phase of the final boss fight. The Enchantress is actually Shield Knight under the influence of the cursed amulet.

Black Knight actually tried to reach Shield Knight with words, but to no avail, much to his despair.

Intercontinuity Crossover: The Xbox and PlayStation versions of the game allow one to battle the Battletoads and Kratos from God of War, respectively, as well as gain relics that allow Shovel Knight to perform techniques with his shovel based upon those characters' fighting styles.

It's Up to You: Without Shovel Knight and Shield Knight to protect the land in their adventures, evil has taken hold. When Shovel Knight sees the chaos, he realizes it's up to him to save the day! The subversion comes when it's revealed that Shovel Knight has little interest in saving the day until the very end: the only reason he's adventuring is to get back to the Tower of Fate and try to save Shield Knight, and the only reason he's taking on the Order of No Quarter and the Enchantress is because they're in his way.

King Mook: The Giant Ghost, which serves as the boss of the Hall of Champions. It can do much more than just slowly float towards Shovel Knight.

Lame Pun Reaction: Toader looks even more grumpy every time Shovel Knight tells him a pun.

Lethal Joke Item: The Fishing Rod. It's only for fishing, right? Wrong. Besides being useful to recover money in case you died, it's the only item besides the Alchemic Coin that deals an entire health point of damage towards the bosses. It is also your only means to recover health in New Game+ without wasting a chalice of Ichor of Renewal or coming across a rare carrot or apple.

The Ornate Armor only offers cosmetic changes, and thus offers no benefits over any other armor... except during sequences where everything turns dark. Even if you can't see Shovel Knight himself, you'll be able to track him by the sparkles of his armor.

The Dust Knuckles. Although it has a low MP consumption, its short range makes it at best situational to use it... However, it's the only thing, besides a charged attack, that can punch through the shield of those pesky knight mooks (in a matter of speaking). Beyond that, it lets you move through the air where dirt blocks are by punching them.

Shovel Strike: Shovel Knight's main weapon is a shovel, in case that wasn't already obvious.

Silence, You Fool!: King Knight responds to Shovel Knight's promise to dispense shovel justice with an angry cry of "SILENCE!"

Sleep Cute: In The Stinger, Shield Knight drags herself to Shovel Knight's campsite and ends up resting next to him in this fashion.

Solid Gold Poop: Request an ichor from the Troupple King that will give you either full magic and health, 10 seconds of invincibility, or the ability to absorb nearby treasure for 60 seconds and he hocks a loogie into your cup.

Stealth Pun: The Dust Knuckles are a play on the term "knuckle duster", a nickname for brass knuckles.

The Reveal: Black Knight is faking his loyalty towards The Enchantress and the Order of No Quarter. He's actually trying to prevent Shovel Knight from reaching The Enchantress in the Tower of Fate not because he's The Rival or wants to prove that he's stronger than him, but because The Enchantress is Shield Knight possessed by a cursed amulet and he's afraid that Shovel Knight might kill her.

The Un-Reveal: Nothing about the amulet that caused the events of the game to happen is really told or how the Tower of Fate returned, or anything about The Enchantress' past.

Undying Loyalty: During the ending, when Shovel Knight finally reunites with Shield Knight.

Unexpected Gameplay Change: The Bonus Boss fight against the Battletoads within the Xbox version has you briefly play 2 minigames while you battle them: one where Shovel Knight and one of the Battletoads are being lowered to the ground via rope á la Wookie Hole from the NES Battletoads game, and one based upon the infamous "Turbo Tunnel" segments from the Battletoads games. You can play the latter minigame at any time once you've beaten them.

Utility Weapon: Besides the obvious applications of Shovel Knight's namesake, the Propeller Dagger vaults you through the air and lets you skip certain obstacles entirely, the Mobile Gear can be ridden over spikes and used to give you an edge in jumping challenges, and the Dust Knuckles let you plow through diggable dirt very quickly, even in midair.

During Shovel Knight's dream sequences, he has the chance to help Shield Knight who is helplessly falling down. Even more so after the first form of the Final Boss, where Shovel Knight finally has the chance to actually save her. However, not catching her just means her shield takes the hit; she isn't hurt; and she still is glad Shovel Knight came for her.

After defeating the Boss Rush before the final battle, you're given the option to pull up the Order of No Quarter from the walls before they can fall. Some of them will offer you their sincere thanks for it.

We Can Rule Together: Polar Knight attempts to get Shovel Knight to join the Order. The Enchantress has also been pulling this on Black Knight.

They probably bonded on the fact that both of them use shovels as weapons. (Shovel Knight uses a spade shovel for directly attacking while Polar Knight uses it as an anti-air shield and to roll up the snow into snow boulders to be used as projectiles.)

Weakened by the Light: Ghosts can be only harmed by a sphere of light; trying to hit them with anything else will only make them phase out for a brief moment. Said sphere is only found in the Hall of Champions, although the ghosts themselves aren't found in many other levels.

Where It All Began: Shovel Knight must return to the Tower of Fate, where he lost Shield Knight.

World of Pun: You can expect a fair amount of shovel and dig puns in the game.

The game runs on Box2D. This is more apparent when Shovel Knight bounces off stuff using his shovel, when gems fall to the ground, when Shovel Knight or the enemies use projectiles that bounce along the ground, during certain parts of Propeller Knight's level that involve alternating air currents, during the second phrase of Kratos's boss fight where gravity is lessened to simulate falling, and during Titan Mode (where it becomes more obvious that Shovel Knight's movements are based upon a physics engine).

There are cheat codes that alter the in-game physics so that they behave differently.

Plague of Shadows Examples

100% Completion: Collecting all 420 Cipher Coins (you only need 230 in total to unlock all the upgrades in Mona's shop and for Percy to fix his catapult) in Plague Of Shadows unlocks the Pandemonium Cloak, which randomly changes your bomb properties, Arcana, and burst every 10 seconds but also bypasses any bomb number limits, allowing you to kill most things in record time with multiple Cluster and Cascade Powder bombs if you happen to get either one of those.

Alternate Timeline: Possibly. The ending "where are they now" scene is entirely dissimilar from Shovel Knight's, and as such cannot exist in the same course of events with it... Yet, at the same time, the campaign's story is modeled in such a way that absolutely everything Shovel Knight went through could have still happened, and you actually see him going through his journey as Plague's progresses. This even extends so far as him going to face the Enchantress, as she vanishes after her essence has been taken, but the lack of Shield Knight's reappearance shows she has yet to be actually defeated.Word of God says that the campaign is told from Plague Knight's point of view, so what he says happened and what actually happened may not be the same thing.....

Antagonist Title: The Plague of Shadows campaign is named after the first form of the mode's final boss.

Anti-Hero: Plague Knight. His methods are still underhanded, he still has a ulterior motive, he's still a Bad Boss to his minions, and he still gets in trouble with the law, due to being associated with The Order. But at the end of the day, Plague Knight helps to take down the Enchantress and destroy the Tower of Fate. Due to saving the land, he, Mona, and the rest of his crew are praised as heroes alongside Shovel Knight and no longer have to operate like criminals in the shadows.

Artificial Brilliance: When fought as a boss, Shovel Knight has some clever reactions towards the player: he'll reflect bombs coming straight up to him with great accuracy, if blocks of the arena are obstructing his way, he'll blow the War Horn to clear the path, if the player is jumping too much  or on a higher ground  he'll use Throwing Anchors, if he's getting hit too many times, he'll use the Phase Locket to protect himself, to get closer safely, he'll attempt to use his Flare Wand as covering fire, and he'll also occasionally distance himself from the player to use Chaos Orbs. He'll also drink the Ichor of Renewal should you whittle down his HP to half (thankfully, he has only one cup). All this in addition to him having the same limitations a player would have as a player character (including the fact that he cam only use his relics a certain amount of times before he can't use them anymore).

Book-Ends: The story begins with Plague Knight and Mona talking about the old alchemist saying "The bigger the explosion, the better the alchemist"; the story ends with the two reciting the same quote right before they use the Ultimate Potion to blow up the Tower of Fate.

Chekhov's Gunman: Shovel Knight can be seen interacting with the NPCs while Plague Knight's taking the secret route to Mona's lair. He becomes the boss of Explodatorium in Plague Knight's stead.

The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: In Plague of Shadows, when you face Shovel Knight in the Explodatorium, he has all 10 health bubbles and access to the War Horn. In the normal campaign, it's impossible to have those by the time you fight Plague Knight since you can only get the War Horn in Polar Knight's stage, which is only accessible after beating the second tier of knights, one of whom is Plague Knight. You might say he was on New Game+, but here he takes regular damage instead of double.

Continuity Nod: In New Game+, you can see a picture of Mona in Plague Knight's secret room, reminiscent of how the two finally came together, even though the two are back to square one as far as the story is concerned.

Contrasting Sequel Main Character: As opposed to the legitimately heroic and kind Shovel Knight, Plague Knight is a bad guy and unabashed jerk. Their gameplay differences help; whereas Shovel Knight's got good mobility that can be made better with items along with predominantly up-close attacks, while Plague Knight's mobility is below average, but gets better once you learn how he works with predominantly ranged attacks.

Contrived Coincidence: In Plague of Shadows, the only reason why Shovel Knight and Plague Knight happened to be at the Explodatorium at the same time is because Shovel Knight just happened to be raiding it while Plague Knight investigated an incident that happened during his absence.

Dark Is Not Evil: In a reversal of Shovel Knight's version of the Hall of Champions, within Plague Knight's version of the exact same stage, the rooms are lit when there's still enemies within the area, but darken when there's not. Light Is Not Good is averted here because said enemies happen to be the city guard who only attacked Plague Knight because they still believed he's part of the Order of No Quarter.

Does This Remind You of Anything?: After completing the first two Order of No Quarter stages, the return to the Potionarium has Plague Knight accidentally walking in on Mona dancing by herself. She's clearly embarrassed over getting caught, asking Plague Knight how long he was watching. He reassures her that he barely saw anything and that he's not a creep, but mentions that dancing by yourself doesn't seem very fun. All in all, it's easy to interpret the scene as an allegory for Mona getting caught doing something else.

Dueling Player Characters: Shovel Knight himself is fought as a boss in Plague of Shadows. The fight is as hectic as you'd imagine, with him using several tricks against you.

Early Game Hell: A couple parts of the very first stage of Plague of Shadows can be rough if you haven't yet gotten comfortable with Plague Knight's radically different control scheme. You also don't have any upgrades to improve your mobility yet.

Almost all of the Order member stage layouts are barely altered, save for adding in Cipher Coins, changing the terrain to make it so that Plague Knight doesn't break the game, rooms containing the Relics, and the bosses have no new changes in their tactics.

Music Sheets are present, almost all of which are present exactly where they were before. Specter of Torment would remove Music Sheets entirely, with the game introducing a Sound Test on the main menu.

Plague Knight can access almost every location from Shovel of Hope, save for the starting town, which the guard refuses to let him enter.

The story takes place concurrently with Shovel of Hope. Both Specter of Torment and King of Cards are prequels to the main game.

Plague Knight's sprites are significantly shrunken down compared to both Specter Knight and King Knight, whose sprites are still fairly close to their boss graphics and only slightly downsized.

There's a boss fight with Shovel Knight himself; the character has very little prominence in either of the two prequels.

Elaborate Underground Base: Plague Knight's underground laboratory, which is located below the Village and can only be accessed via a secret entrance through a house.

Eldritch Abomination: The second form of the Plague of Shadows, the Corrupted Essence, resembles a highly distorted version of Plague Knight.

Exact Words: The intro text makes Plague Knight out to be a villainous Starscream who only joined the Order of No Quarter to help him along with his own evil scheme to brew the "ultimate potion", with which "nothing he desired would be in out of his reach". It turns out he was only brewing the ultimate potion to woo Mona to his side. After finding out Mona loved him anyway, he destroys said potion due to already having "everything he desires".

FaceHeel Turn: Or possibly a HeelFace Turn depending on how you look at it; when you enter The Explodatorium, all of Plague Knight's former minions have turned on him and will attack him without hesitation. It's never revealed why they turned on him.

Five-Man Band: Plague Knight and his named colleagues form one of these.

Gameplay and Story Segregation: The campaign seemingly takes place at the same time as Shovel Knight's, but his boss fight has a few Relics from after the level, which he couldn't logically have at the Explodatorium the first time you play it, due to Plague Knight not having sold them yet. The properties of some of the sub weapons are also different, but especially the War Horn, which can't destroy blocks in Shovel of Hope, but can in Plague of Shadows, which he uses to clear a path.

Heads I Win, Tails You Lose: The fights against Shovel Knight within Plague of Shadows are this, as right after you've beaten him, he'll perform a surprise attack that knocks Plague Knight unconscious. Not that Plague Knight cares, as he still gets what he wants from beating him.

Interspecies Romance: At the end of Plague of Shadows, The Magicist hooks up with Percy the horse-man.

Load-Bearing Boss: Subverted at the end. Defeating the final boss doesn't destroy the tower. Plague Knight and Mona using the Ultimate Potion as an ultimate explosive does.

Meaningful Name: "Plague of Shadows" is the name of the penultimate boss of the identically-named campaign, being a shadowy copy of Plague Knight.

Musical Spoiler: The soundtrack to Plague of Shadowslists Shovel Knight's battle theme as "Battling the Burrower", spoiling the fact that he becomes a boss fight within that mode.

Noodle Incident: Percy says that his catapult will send Plague Knight into an armored fortress, but Plague Knight doesn't trust Percy's coordinates, due to the last time resulting in him being stuck out in the middle of the ocean, with all of his potions waterlogged. Naturally, his fears are right: he lands right inside Armor Outpost while trying to stay incognito, even though taking over Armor Outpost is ultimately a boon.

Reverse Shrapnel: A bomb casing that Plague Knight can obtain is the Orbit casing, which, when thrown, causes bombs to circle around Plague Knight. It's not too useful against bosses, as most of their attacks will simply ignore the bombs, but it works well against enemies that approach you at odd angles.

Sequel Hook: In Plague Knight's credit sequence, Specter Knight's scene has him discovering that the phase locket is gone, and his reaction is to cut the treasure chest in half in a rage, hinting at his later role in Specter of Torment.

Sheathe Your Sword: During the fight with the Plague of Shadows, an alternative method of defeating it is standing completely still. The boss will never harm you as long as you never move a muscle, and after 40 seconds, the fight will end, and he'll compliment your resolve and die automatically, letting you move on to the second part of the fight.

Stealth Pun: The challenge "Grave Robber" requires Plague Knight to collect all the money hidden in an area that is built as a loop, in contrast to more linear challenge stages. It's set in the Lich Yard, the Castlevania-inspired area of the game, and the only tool at Plague Knight's disposal is the Spin Burst, which sends him into a damaging somersault that destroys everything he touches, much like the Screw Attack from Metroid. In all aspects, this challenge qualifies as Metroidvania.

Unreliable Narrator: A Tweet from Yacht Club Games suggests that the campaign is actually from Plague Knight's perspective, which would go a way in explaining the behavior of Shovel Knight after you defeat him.

Video Game Caring Potential: After being defeated, Baz can be hired by Plague Knight as a minion. If you do so, he'll occasionally restock Plague Knight's Tonics for free. If you don't hire him, he disappears and you're stuck with either buying them from the Magicist or finding them in stages.

What Happened to the Mouse?: It's never explained what became of The Enchantress. Black Knight went to follow her, but she isn't seen again after that. Presumably she was defeated by Shovel Knight, as in the main campaign.

You Fool!: When Plague Knight reveals to Black Knight that he's only creating the Ultimate Potion so that he can use it to become stronger and get Mona to love him, Black Knight calls him this for failing to see that she already does.

Specter of Torment examples

100% Completion: Collecting all the red skulls allows Specter Knight to use his old equipment from when he was still alive.

Act of True Love: Specter Knight sacrifices his freedom and resurrection for Reize's safety after an entire campaign of trying to get it back.

Anti-Frustration Features: Cloak of Clemency will prevent Specter Knight from instantly dying at the cost of 2 bars of Darkness and 4 points of Will, depositing him to the nearest stable platform and making him invincible until you press a button, essentially letting you fall into a pit or touch spikes 2 times per life at full Darkness and Will before you run out. Since this mode is nothing short of bottomless pits and spikes, this helps a lot.

Missy will sell any Will or Darkness Wisps you may have missed during levels.

The dash slash is biased towards slashing diagonally upwards, making it more difficult to die to Bottomless Pits due to a botched dash slash. He's also moved just slightly upward if you miss by an inch, to keep the dash slash from being botched.

In the Iron Whale, if you die after defeating the giant angler fish, it'll still be dead when you respawn, so you won't have to fight it again.

Artificial Brilliance: If a boss takes a certain amount of damage from a Skeletal Sentry, they'll temporarily ignore you and prioritize destroying the Sentry.

The Dark Acolyte and Missy are revealed in the epilogue to be the Troupple Acolytes from the main game and Plague of Shadows.

Batman Gambit: At the end of the campaign, the Enchantress reveals that she had corrupted and enslaved Reize so that Specter Knight would sacrifice his one chance of freedom and serve as her eighth knight by using the power of the locket to free Reize from her control.

Bittersweet Ending: Specter Knight fails to leave his servitude of the Order of No Quarter, with the Order making their move to conquer the land, but Reize's life is safe, and due to the events of the main game, the Order willfall eventually.

The end of Shovel Knight's campaign shows that while the Enchantress and the Tower have been destroyed and Specter Knight is no longer forced to do the former's bidding, he's still presumably stuck as an undead Knight forever. That said, he seems to be enjoying himself, suggesting he's become able to move on in some capacity.

While the levels have all been redesigned to be mostly new, there are still some segments and rooms that resemble the levels as presented in the original two campaigns.

In the epilogue, Plague Knight and Mona are seen setting up shop underground, setting up the events of Plague of Shadows (complete with a musical snippet taken from that campaign's intro). Plague Knight's sprites also look exactly as they did in his campaign, rather than the taller look he sports in the original game and this one.

Eagle-eyed players can find Specter Knight's room in the Lich Yard, similarly to Plague Knight's secret room in Plague of Shadows. However, unlike Plague Knight's, the room has some familiar block formations, and breaking open a locked section reveals a hidden chest. The epilogue reveals that this room was the one that Plague Knight finds the Phase Locket in.

Canon Character All Along: The Dark Acolyte and Missy are both the male and female Troupple Acolytes from Shovel of Hope and Plague of Shadows.

Contrasting Sequel Main Character: Whereas Shovel Knight and Plague Knight have a goal involving someone they loved, Specter Knight's goals involve escaping the Enchantress's employ, making him much more selfish, impulsive, and cynical, but not incapable of altruistic acts, in spite of starting as an adventurer like Shovel Knight himself. Averted in the end when he remembered the promise he made to protect Reize. His gameplay also has a great emphasis on movement and speed, with his movement options not as limited as Shovel Knight's, but he isn't as powerful at traversing terrain as Plague Knight is with his bomb jumps.

Darker and Edgier: While not lacking the game's signature humor, the tone of the story is much more serious and character-centered, and delves into Specter Knight's near-death and resurrection, along with his doomed goal of being free of the Enchantress.

Developers' Foresight: Once you beat Polar Knight's stage, Tundreadnote The fuzzy viking-like enemies that throw spears start appearing as interactable Non Player Characters in the Tower of Fate. When talked to, they may say that they wish they had the Rail Mail to travel quickly. Grinding on the floor using the cloak in question provokes an awed reaction from them.

The menu interface of the touch-screen for the 3DS version allows you to view your Curios and Gear, even during cutscenes on the top screen. If you selected the Keepsake Locket on this menu during the post-Final Boss cutscene where Specter Knight uses said locket to transform Reize back to his normal self, the counter for the recruited Knights actually changes to 8 out of 8 and its icon's color changes from red to blue the very moment Reize's Nightmare form is purged.

Disproportionate Retribution: The reason the Dancer is so keen on Shovel Knight beating up Specter Knight in the Lich Yard? He ignored her dance and told her to go away.

If you press the Down Button, the same command that allows Specter Knight to do the "Cold Shoulder" near the Memmec residing in the tower, Specter Knight looks around to make sure nobody's watching, and pets it.

Do the Cold Sholder twice when wearing the Donovan Set and he'll dance!

The Tundread in Specter Knight's hub is fascinated with sliding along the ground and mentions the Rail Mail by name. Using the Rail Mail to grind while he's nearby causes him to stop in his tracks, turn to face you, and watch in slack-jawed amazement.

Going right at the beginning of the "Dirt Clod Dash" challenge lets the player find Treasure Knight doing some accounting.

Forced into Evil: A majority of the Order members, but Tinker Knight and Mole Knight in particular; they were already busy with their own projects before Specter Knight came along.

For every four points of damage done to a boss, Specter Knight recovers some Darkness.

After defeating four knights (Black Knight included), Reize bursts into the tower and falls under the Enchantress's control. Excluding Black Knight, this happens when entering the fourth stage you choose to go to.

Grind Boots: Specter Knight can use his scythe to grind on rails. With a certain outfit, he can also grind on the ground and spikes.

HeelFace Turn: The Dark Acolyte that helps Specter Knight recruit the Order of No Quarter flees at the end of the game to become the Troupple Acolyte and help Shovel Knight. Missy is seen visiting the Troupple King alongside the Acolyte, implying that she'll go on to become the female Troupple Acolyte that sells Plague Knight a chalice in Plague of Shadows.

Specter Knight does this and tries to defeat the Enchantress himself for a few reasons. Not the least of which is that she has the amulet that would restore him to life, what she's done to the son of his old partner, and because she's possessing Shield Knight. He even teams up with the other example of this trope to do so.

Prequel: The campaign is about Specter Knight recruiting the members of the Order of No Quarter, rather than being on the same journey as Shovel Knight as with Plague Knight in Plague of Shadows.

Press X to Die: Specter Knight can dash-attack through enemies either up or down depending on his position. There's no reason he'd ever use the down-slash with a hazard below him, but it's still offered in that (very common) situation — and dash attacks override the attack button whenever they're available. You will lose many lives to this pointless option.

Sequel Hook: An easily missable one: all of the stages are Specter Knight scouting the lands to recruit Knights... except for Pridemoor Keep. There, Specter Knight has been "tasked with setting [King Knight] back on schedule", hinting that King Knight was recruited before the other Knights and that his story may take place yet further in the past, before Specter Knight's.

Serial Escalation: Plague of Shadows is, aside from a few tweaks, the base game, except Plague Knight has his own distinct playstyle and physics. Specter Knight ups the ante, with new levels, weapons, gameplay mechanics, and pre-established boss characters having new tricks up their sleeves.

Sewer Level: Specter Knight's route through the Explodatorium is similar to one of these, bringing him through mazes of piping that channel streams of aqueous buffer.

Suspiciously Specific Denial: Upon defeating Plague Knight, one of his henchmen will wander the top of the castle. Upon being talked to, he'll say that Plague Knight "always" stays in the Explodatorium, and doesn't go anywhere else. He then gives you three pink diamonds in an attempt to bribe you.

Sinister Scythe: Specter Knight's weapon of choice, as well as two of his Curio weapons: the Throwing Sickle and Spider Scythe.

Took a Level in Badass: Bosses here are not messing around. Even King Knight is a legitimate threat and he can create one-hit kill pits in his arena this time around. Somewhat of an inversion, though, as this is a Prequel.

The Unfought: Since the campaign is a prequel to the main story and Plague of Shadows that focuses on the Enchantress recruiting the Order of No Quarter, Shovel Knight doesn't even appear, much less serve as a boss battle. Surprisingly, even when Specter Knight  then still alive and known as Donovan  faces off against Shield Knight in the Tower of Fate over the cursed amulet in a flashback, he's nowhere to be seen. Specter Knight also doesn't get to fight two of the wandering heroes; Baz at least makes it seem as if he's going to pick a fight before giving up, but Mr. Hat only appears in the end credits.

Denser and Wackier: The campaign takes the silliness already inherent in Shovel Knight and runs with it, resulting in new gameplay elements such as Iron Sumos, the Propellor Rats lifting King Knight out of levels, and King Pridemoor getting into armor to throw down with King Knight.

Gameplay and Story Segregation: Specter Knight is shown using the Dread Talon, which he couldn't have possibly had during the point of time this campaign takes place, due to the fact he has to exchange red skulls for it in his own campaign, which he only does after being tasked to recruit the rest of the members of the Order.

Giant Mook: Iron Sumos, who are taller, fatter versions of the Goldarmors.

A Day in the Limelight: Every character has their own Story Mode, allowing characters who otherwise didn't have their own campaign in the game to get some character focus.

Composite Character: The Goldarmor character, who is based off a generic enemy, but has moves borrowed from differently colored versions from a number of levels (which are also alternate colors), such as being able to throw anchors like the purple Iron Whale enemies.

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